Thursday, April 2, 2009

Christine's birthday, Toulouse

Jae Min, Kristina, and I decided to celebrate my host mom's birthday because she would be in Japan on her real birthday. Friday night Jae Min and Kristina came over to my house after school, I made a cake, and Jae Min made fried shrimp. We set the table and wrapped the gift before she got home. Fried shrimp is her favorite meal and she really loves chocolate cake. We got her an eletronic sudoku puzzle for her present so she could take it to Japan with her. She was crazy about the gift, Jae Min and I were really happy.
Saturday I made chilli and cookies.

This year in France was a big year for exchanges because they had a huge conference in Toulouse where all of the inbounds all over France met up for about 3 days. Paige came over to my house Thursday night and we made cookies and got our lunches ready. I slept for about 3 hours and Paige didn't sleep at all. We got on the bus for Toulouse with an incredible about of energy. The bus was really fun because exchange students are in general a bit crazy. We stopped in a big town somewhere before Toulouse and visted. There was a torture museum and a scare museum. We got to Toulouse around 5 and were assigned rooms.
Finding Laura was my main objective. Paige and I ran to every new bus that arrived. I was looking for my fellow Kansans and she her fellow Canadian. I was shouting Rock Chalk Jayhawk hoping that someone would scream back GO KU. However, that didn't work so I resorted to asking around. I eventually found her and we had dinner together.
The rotary organized a huge circus day. We each attempted different circus events and depending on our preformance were given a certain number of dollars. The one with the most dollars at the end of the event won. The circus events were really fun. We did plate juggling, sac races, tight rope, fishing blindfolded, and lots of other things. We had a small lunch then got back on the bus to go home.
The next two weeks I will be away on my bus trip.. I will write again soon :)

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Carnaval!!

This week at school we had carnaval. It's an old french tradition where you dress up in a disguise and eat crepes. My best friend Paige and I dressed up as Power Rangers. I was the pink one and she was the yellow. At our school everyone lined up in front of the entrance and those who were disguised passed by to show off. It was fun. Rodrigo was a Mexican for carnaval and he walked with us. However, I missed out on eating crepes because I didn't have money with me :(..
Friday evening I went over to my friend Morgane's house. We ate raclette with her family and then talked until 10. Saturday I went to Noemie's for lunch then we went iceskating with her mom. Sunday I helped my host mom get lunch ready and rode a horse. It was pretty fun and my host sister is going to teach me how to ride.
Well that was my week...
Bisous

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Everything from January 1st to Febuary 22

For New Years I went to my friend Laurie's house. We had a disco themed party, but no disco music was played. I still had a pretty good time though.
January 5th I switched host families. I had so much stuff I litterally filled the car. That was kind of embarrassing. I will be sending all of my winter clothes and things home by mail so I will not have to pay extra when I come home. My first impressions of my host family were that they were pretty nice and my host mom was pretty funny. My new room is smaller in size, but I have more space to put my clothes. I am still an only child. I won't have a brother or sister through out my whole stay :(
January 24th. My birthday!! My birthday was the best birthday I have ever had. My friend Paige helped me get everything ready. We made rice krispie treats and peanut butter fudge. All my friends brought a little something to eat and we spent the night dancing eating and talking. I received lots of nice gifts and everyone had a really good time.
January 30th was our Snow Weekend with the Rotary. We went to the Vercors. We were informed that we would be using snow shoes and noone was happy about that. Just about everyone had done snowshoeing before. When I had gone I went with my host Dad and host brother. They were both in pretty good shape so decided to climb a high mountain. Believe me I was miserable through out the march and did not want to repeat that experience again. This time though was actually fun. We were walking up very small hills and Paige and I were rolling down them. Paige and I taught the other student to play B.S. I went sledding in trash bags. All in all the Snow Weekend was a lot of fun.
The past two weeks I have been on vacation. It has been pretty great. I have relaxed and drank lots of hot chocolate. I went to Paige's house for a couple of days. Her host family is really nice which makes me happy because they are my next host family. Paige and I went to Chambury where we ate Domino's pizza, wandered aimlessly, and met up Katie and Hector. We had a pretty good day lots of walking and recounting of random stories. I went home from Paige's Wednesday. Thursday I went to my friend Noemie's house. We ate and played the wii. I didn't do anything Friday, but Saturday I went to Mount Blanc with Paige and Jae Min. We had a really fun time. We went into this ice cave that was carved from an old glacier. Inside the gave there was an art exhibtion. This year's theme was fountains. It was 324 steps down and up from the cave. At the top of the tourist area we found a crystal cave. Later we went to the animal museum. At the train station Paige Jae Min and I ate icecream. It was -20 degrees celsius outside. We all felt a little bit crazy. We took the train down the mountain and did a little shopping. I went skiing with Jae Min Sunday. He really cracks me up. He can barely speak English, but he says the most ridiculous and funny things anyway. While we were skiing we saw two big snow flattening machines. I said "Oh no Jae Min monster" "We run away now" and he said "No Olivia, We fight, We Power Ranger". It's really quite funny. Whenever I am with Jae Min I speak really bad English just so he gets the idea of what I want to do. Jae Min had really long fingernails one day, Paige and I tried to get him to cut them. He told us no he vampire. So now everytime I am with Jae Min he shows me his really long pinky nail and says " I vampire" it makes me expode in laughter. Wednesday Jae Min and Kristina came to my house and we just hung out for a while. Friday my host mom, my host sister Caroline, my host sister Marine, her girlfriend, Jae Min, and I all went skiing. We had beautiful weather. I of course was the worst skier, but we all had fun anyway. Lunch was so funny. Jae Min does not like gay people and my host sister and her girlfriend kept kissing. Everytime I would look over at Jae Min had the absolute most horrified/disgusted look I have ever seen a person possess. I felt a lot closer to my host mom after our day of skiing. Everytime I fell down she helped me back up. Saturday Jae Min and I went to Grenoble to celebrate Paige's fake birthday. We went to KFC with Ayan, Paige, and Kristina. After lunch we went Grand Place then on to Hagen Daas. I had my first french milkshake and it was not good. It was too thin and didn't have any oreo cookie chunks in it.
Last night at dinner was about the most I have ever laughed with this host family. Their son's friend Jordan was over. He had just gotten a hair cut. Someone had messed up and ended by buzzing him. My host family kept joking that he was an escaped prisoner. Later my host mom was telling him that next time someone tried to cut his hair he was to run to our house so she could cut it. She then went on to say what a good job she does cutting my host dad's hair ( my host dad is completely bald on top) I looked over at my host dad and started busting up laughing I turned bright red and everything. My whole host family followed me by laughing. My host mom then tried to cover herself and said " Well I'm not the one who made him bald". It was the best laugh I have had in a long time.
Well that's all I have to tell about now. Tuesday is Mardi Gras and I will be dressing up as the Pink Power Ranger. Paige (my favorite canadian/best friend) will be the Yellow Ranger. It should be a lot of fun. I can't wait to write about it.
See you all in June
Love Olivia